New IBM 'T-Rex' Sniffs Out Midrange Fare

Big Blue celebrated the 40th anniversary of its first mainframe
with the release of a scaled down version of the original machine and
a new storage system.

IBM updated its "T-Rex" line of mainframe computer
systems Wednesday by adding a scaled down version of the original machine designed specifically for midsize enterprise and a corresponding storage system.

Geared to compete with Unix offerings from HP and Sun Microsystems, the eServer zSeries 890 offers features from the z990 at a lower cost and entry size. The Armonk, N.Y. systems vendor also announced a Shark enterprise storage server to accompany the z890 into the midrange space.

Terri Virnig, vice president of strategic initiative and technical support at IBM, said the z890 and Shark system news comes on the 40th anniversary of the company's first mainframe, the System/360. Virning said the zSeries has grown from a $5 billion investment to roughly $30 billion since the mainframe appeared in 1964.

The z890 offers the same levels of virtualization, automation, security, and scalability as the z990, but it is 100 percent faster than the previous midrange z800 server, and it is more than 30 percent smaller to conserve space in
cluttered data centers.

Virnig told internetnews.com the new machine offers unprecedented
granularity in that it features 28 capacity settings spanning one to four processors to let enterprises match server capacity with their business requirements.

This granularity was added in response to customer requests and advice on how IBM could improve on the z800. For example, the machine processes from 26 to 1350 MIPS, more than twice the capacity of the z800.

Such flexibility is key at a time when customer's computing needs
increase or decrease in an instant, and is another example of how IBM is bringing
its e-business on-demand strategy to fruition.

Sageza Research Director Charles King said the play is another hallmark
of IBM's strategy to push features from high-end machines down into lower
cost products designed for smaller companies that ask for high-level
functionality.

"They're pushing the z990 technology that was introduced in the T-Rex down
into the mid-market in the same way that they did with the z900 into
the z800," King told internetnews.com. "The z900 was the original
big box and typically what they'll do -- at least for the last two product
releases -- is bring the big box out first and then a year or so later
they push that technology down into a small box."

King said the move is indicative of the way the company has been using
its mainframes a proving ground for new technologies. After all, one can
look at most of Big Blue's server and storage products and pick out
capabilities first found in IBM mainframes, including autonomic computing and
virtualization features.

The keystone feature of the z890 is the new zSeries Application Assist
Processor (zAAP), a z/OS Java execution environment for customers
seeking to integrate Java Web applications alongside existing business
applications and data on the same server platform.

The technology is designed to let users incorporate Java
applications with legacy software. Priced at $125,000 per processor and slated for
June 30, zAAP simplifies server infrastructure and improves operational
efficiencies, which cuts costs.

King said the zAAP technology is an example of IBM adding new
technologies to satisfy its current customer base, as well as to try to attract new
classes of customers. Ultimately, King said, IBM would likely seek to move
customers from s/360 and s/390 legacy systems to the zSeries. "Those customers
get increasingly expensive for a vendor to support over time," he said.

The z890 also features On/Off computing-on-demand support for
integrated Coupling Facilities and zAAP and provides additional temporary capacity
for Parallel Sysplex clustering and Java workloads.

The new server will ship starting May 28, with entry level pricing around $200,000.

As for the new storage system, the TotalStorage Enterprise Storage Server 750 is designed to help midrange customers meet the smaller capacity and price needs of new mainframe and other system servers.

The ESS 750 allows for from 1.1 to 4.6 terabytes of on-demand
storage that upgrades on the fly; more than 20 autonomic feature for
storage
management; and new copy services functions.

The machine will be available in May starting at a shade over $100,000.

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